The Love That Split the World(65)

I laugh and, for a second, the heaviness in my chest lifts away. “So what kind of baggage are we talking about?” I say, then feel a jab of guilt over my impromptu background check.

“Well, there’s his mom, obviously. She’s a little bit . . . out there. And his dad left and never visits. I don’t think he came to a single game in five years, not even the two times they went to State. Apparently he sends Beau liquor in the mail—I mean, the guy’s a recovering alcoholic, and he’s practically begging Beau to take his place now that he’s sober. Of course all of this is hearsay. Probably just rumors.”

“I’m not so sure,” I say, staring down at my feet, thinking of Senior Night, Beau slipping into the school to get drunk by himself and play the piano.

Megan sighs. “And then there’s everything with Matt.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I’m sure that’s hard on everyone.”

Megan chews on her pinky nail and shrugs. “Yeah, but especially Beau. I mean, the Kincaids totally blame him.”

“For the accident?” I say, stunned.

“For the drinking. They can’t fathom that Matty might make his own mistakes once in a while. Anytime something goes wrong, good old Joyce is quick to point a finger at Beau. The two of them burned the barn down when they were kids, and according to Matt, it was mostly his fault, but Matt was afraid what his parents would do. So Beau took all the blame, and Matt had to convince them not to press charges.”

“Wow,” I say, vaguely thinking that the Kincaids make my parents look like the progeny of flower children and Mother Teresa. I think about the way Joyce and Raymond sat apart from Beau in the hospital the morning of the accident, only sparing glances at him to shoot him daggers. “It’s going to be okay,” I tell Megan. “It’s all going to be okay.”

“I’m glad I ran into you,” Megan says. We both stand up to go, and it’s the same as it’s always been—the two of us, understanding one another without too many words.

“Me too.”

It’s true that nothing has the potential to hurt so much as loving someone, but nothing heals like it either.





21


“There once was a hunting party,” Grandmother said. “Among this party were an old man, his daughter and her husband, and their young son. Though they set off together, it wasn’t long before the hunting party was separated. The old man, the woman, and her husband went one way, while their child accidentally went the other.

“They did not notice the missing child until the sun was going down, and then there was nothing much they could do but camp. Luckily, they happened upon a cabin in a clearing, and so they decided to camp there for the night.

“They built a powerful fire and went to bed, the old man on one side of the cabin and the married couple on the other. When the fire had dwindled to sparks, a noise awoke the couple. When they listened, they determined it was a dog gnawing on a bone. Then the noise turned to a sharp rattling, and they got out of bed to find the source.

“Crossing the cabin, they found that the old man had been killed by some kind of animal, his blood pouring from his body onto the bed where he slept. They were frightened, of course, but it was the middle of the night, and there was nothing to be done. The attacking animal had vanished, and so the couple covered the old man’s body, fed the fire, and went back to their bed to wait for sunrise.

“But again, when the fire went down, they heard the noise. They leapt out of bed, running toward the old man’s body. This time they saw the creature that had killed him: a living Skeleton, who peered up at them before fleeing through a hole in the cabin wall. The husband and wife were terrified. They knew the creature would not willingly let them escape, so they crept back to their bed and made a plan in hushed whispers.

“They stoked the fire back to life, and then the wife said, loud enough for the Skeleton to hear from wherever he hid, ‘I am so thirsty, husband. I must go down to the stream for a drink.’ And so she left, and the Skeleton did not pursue her. Then the husband built the fire up further and said aloud, ‘Where is my wife? Why has she been gone so long? I must go down to the stream to make sure she’s all right.’ And so he snuck from the cabin too, breaking into a run as soon as he was clear of it. He found his wife in the woods, and together they ran back toward their home.

“But the Skeleton returned when the fire had gone down and found his prey had vanished, and so he took off in pursuit of them, howling terribly. The couple ran fast until they reached their home, where their people were in the middle of a great celebration and feast. Hearing their kindred’s cries for help, the people ran out into the woods to meet them, and the Skeleton fled.

“The next morning a group of people set out for the cabin. They found the remains of the old man’s body and, in the loft, they found an old bark coffin that held a Skeleton, a man whose friends had left him unburied. To destroy the cabin and the Skeleton, they surrounded it with dry bark and fuel and lit a fire to consume it. As they stood watching the cabin burn, they saw a fox with eyes that glowed like fire flee from the house and dart into the woods.

“The end.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. Grandmother smirked.

“You would know if I was kidding,” she said. “I’m hilarious.”